The scene starts with a sideways tracking shot of a neighbourhood. This is an establishing shot which enables the audience to discover where the film is set. The shot is framed by the edge of a car window to denote where the camera is and to show a POV of someone looking out of the car window. We then see a male come to the car window to talk with the female. Both characters are young, about 18-20. This young age connotes innocence, making them more of a protagonist than an antagonist. Their actions also seem 'normal' and not suspicious in any way which again connotes that they are innocent and mean no harm. The neighbourhood looks very calm and family friendly which may seem a little too idealistic for the audience, foreboding bad events in the future. This is because the audience would be aware that the film is a horror, and usually a bad event takes place. There only appears to be diegetic sound, for example crickets, other cars and dialogue. The lighting used is very minimal to connote a dark atmosphere and a sense of suspense.
The male then joins the female driver in the car. When the characters are in the car, there appears to be a soft back light, and a soft fill light. These are set very low to make the car seem as car as possible, whilst still allowing the audience to see the characters.
We then see them drive to a more remote location where they park. A few long shots are also used in the sequence to show the audience where the characters are and to reveal location. This allows context to be given to what is happening with the characters. The location of the film also achieves realism as it is set in a 'normal' everyday setting: This again makes the event unexpected, but also adds more tension as the audience never know what will happen next in the sequence (the plot-line is not predictable). The characters are also dressed in everyday clothing and are wearing natural makeup to seem realistic. Mid-closeups are then used to show how they feel: at first they look relaxed, but as another car approaches their facial expressions change to a nervous/scared emotion. This may make the audience feel the same, therefore engaging them in the film more.
The editing frequency increases as an unknown gun man walks out of the car and shoots then characters through the car window. This adds a sense of action to the clip and creates a more fast pace therefore adding tension. Non-diegetic sound begins to play when the characters die. This music it instrumental at first with a fast tempo and of the rock genre. However when the lyrics start to play, they correlate with what is happening in the scene: 'roly poly' to connote the teenagers dying and 'black' when the fade to black edit takes place. This music soundtrack helps to add atmosphere to the piece and to engage to viewer when not much diegetic sound is present. A fade to black is used after the teenagers death to signify the ending of the scene, but also their death. This adds a dramatic feel to piece as it connotes to the audience that their lives are now gone, and also the end of the scene.
This opening definitely uses Todorov's theory where the scene starts out with a sense of realism as the setting looks normal and the characters seem to be only starting their night together. This is the 'equilibrium' stage. Next the opening progresses to the 'disruption' stage where the couple get shot by a group of men. This gives a sense of shock to the audience.
However the other stages are not included in the opening for obvious reasons: this makes the audience feel on edge so they want to continue watching. If all the other stages were included the rest of the film would be uninteresting and boring.
As the sequence is filmed in detail, with many different shot angles to create unrestricted narration, the audience may feel omniscient as they know all the details about the event.
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